The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 26, 2023

Cloudy Mountains

雲山圖

1130

Mi Youren 米友仁

(Chinese, 1072–1151)

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1279)

Handscroll; ink and color on silk

Image: 43.7 x 192.6 cm (17 3/16 x 75 13/16 in.); Overall: 45.5 x 646.8 cm (17 15/16 x 254 5/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1933.220

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The handscroll’s multicolored silk brocade cover has a title label and a sticker left from when it was lent to the 1935–36 International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy in London.

Description

Cloudy Mountains pictures a lush and misty riverscape from the Lower Yangzi Delta in Southeast China. Mi Youren painted the scene after fleeing south across the Yangzi River to escape the Jin military forces that had overthrown the Song dynasty in the north. On the painting is the artist’s inscription: “Fine hills are endless toward the edges of heaven, so are mist and clouds, rain and shine, days and nights. . . . In the year of gengxu [1130] I painted this, while seeking refuge in Xinchang.” This scroll is one of the museum’s earliest dated Chinese paintings and major works of art.

Inscriptions

Inscription

好山無數接天涯，烟靄陰晴日夕佳。 要識先生會到此，故留筆戲在君家。 庚戍歲，辟地新昌作。元暉。 [seal] 元暉戲作

Inscription Translation

Fine hills are endless toward the edges of heaven. So are mist and cloud, rain and shine, days and nights. Had I known that you’d be visiting here. I would have left this playful work in your home. In the year of gengxu [1130], [I painted this] while seeking refuge in Xinchang. Yuanhui. [seal] “Yuan hui xi zuo” (Yuanhui playfully made this)

Inscription

[Seal] 安陽孫氏

Inscription Translation

Anyang Sun shi

Inscription

[Seal] 畢瀧

Inscription Translation

Bi Long

Inscription

[Seal] 成親王

Inscription Translation

Prince Cheng

Inscription

[Seal] 永瑆

Inscription Translation

Yungxing (1752–1823)

Inscription

[Seal] 錫三 appears twice

Inscription Translation

Xisan

Inscription

[Seal] 養性齋珍藏書畫印

Inscription Translation

Yangxing zhai zhen cang shu hua yin (calligraphy and painting in the collection of the Yangxing studio)

Inscription

[Seal] 芷陔審定真跡

Inscription Translation

"Zhigai shen ding zhen ji” (authenticated by Zhigai [Li Zaixian 李在銛])

Inscription

[Seal] 玉簡齋

Inscription Translation

“Yu jian zhai" Yujian Studio

Inscription

2 colophons (1 dated 1650), inscription dated 1647, and 2 seals of Wang To (1592–1652)

Inscription

1 colophon, dated second month of the gengyin year 庚寅 (1650), and 2 seals of Chen Kuang 陳爌 (1646 jinshi degree)

Inscription

7 seals unidentified

Inscription

A separate scroll containing six colophons on Cloudy Mountains exists; the inscribers are Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 (1866–1940), Naito Torajiro 內藤虎次郎 (1866–1934), Nagao Ko 長尾甲 (1864–1942), and Wu Changshuo 吳昌碩 (1844–1927). Naito Torajiro alone wrote three colophons.

Provenance
Zigu 子榖 [mid-1600s]
Xisan 錫三 of Yang xing zhai 養性齋 [likely 1800s]
Li Zaixian 李在銛 [early 1900s]
Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 [1866–1940]
Yamamoto Teijiro 山本悌二郞 [1870–1937], Tokyo, Japan
?–1933
(Yamanaka and Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1933–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Tō Sō Gen Min meigaten-gō [唐宋元明名画展号]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun Hakkōjo, 1928. p. 56
"Part II. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Cleveland Museum of Art 1933." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 21, no. 2 (1934): 1-15. Mentioned: p. 4 www.jstor.org
The Chinese Exhibition; A Commemorative Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, November 1935-March 1936. London: Faber and Faber, 1936. Mentioned; cat. no. 1140, p. 48
Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition: June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936. cat. no. 382
Pacific Cultures, Department of Fine Arts, Division of Pacific Cultures. San Francisco, CA: Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939. Reproduced: cat. no. 126
Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. cat. no. 15
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 854 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 258 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 258 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 341 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E. "River Village: Fisherman's Joy." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Vol. 66, No. 7 (Oct., 1979). Reproduced: p. 271-288, fig. 11 www.jstor.org
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 24, pp. 42-44
Harrist, Robert E. "Watching Clouds Rise: A Tang Dynasty Couplet and Its Illustration in Song Painting." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 7 (1991): 301-23. Mentioned: p.323, p. 313 www.jstor.org
Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 38-39, cat. no. 18
Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Reproduced: fig. 3, pp. 98-100
Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 50-55
Burnett, Katharine P. "A New Look at a New Look: Painting and Theory of Seventeenth-Century China." Little, Stephen. In 17th-century Chinese paintings from the Tsao family collection. Stephen Little, ed., 130-167. Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich, Germany; DelMonico Books, 2016. Reproduced: pp. 158-159
Moser, Jeffrey. "Mist as Method." Manual Issue 9 (Fall 2017): 16-29. Reproduced: p. 26, fig. 6
Hai, Willow Weilan. "Mountains of China: Legends and Civilization." Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer's Lens. Willow Weilan Hai, ed., 11-41. New York: China Institute, 2018. Reproduced: p. 31
Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 82, fig. 42
Chaves, Jonathan. The Chinese painter as poet. New York, NY: China Institute Gallery, China Institute, 2000. Reproduced: cat. no. 2, pp. 34-35, p. 132
Exhibition history

To-So-Gen-Min, II. Tokyo Imperial Museum, Tokyo, Japan (November 24-December 16, 1928).

The International Exhibition of Chinese Art. Royal Academy of Art, London, England (November 1935-March 1936).

Pacific Cultures, China. Golden Gate International Exhibition, San Francisco, CA (1939).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 4-July 22, 2003).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Exhibition of the Month: The Romantic Spirit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 29-May 5, 1952).

Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).

Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 7-March 29, 1981).

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).

Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).

Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).

The Chinese Painter as Poet. China Institute Gallery, New York, NY (organizer) (September 14-December 17, 2000).

Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).

Inspired by Chinese Landscape and Art – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 14, 2017-February 5, 2018).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1933.220